Panasonic - Bringing Laser Projection to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

 In the heart of downtown Music City—otherwise known as Nashville, Tennessee—the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum celebrates the heritage of its eponymous genre and the individual contributions of singers, songwriters and musicians who have shaped the distinc­tively American sound.

For many years, the museum has relied on the reseller Special Event Services (Special Event Services) for its expertise and counsel on the best products in the industry. Through that partnership, they’ve integrated Panasonic for a suite of products across the museum, in­cluding three roaming PT-RZ670BU projectors, two pan/tilt/zoom AW-HE120 cameras (each with a AW-HS50 controller) and most recently, three of the new AG-DVX200PJ 4K cameras for live-streaming events.

Alex Krompic is the manager of production and all technical services at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, including the 1,100 events held in the space throughout the year. He notes that the museum has “used Panasonic gear for years and has never had any failures. We’ve been fond of Panasonic for a long time.”

The PT-RZ12K projector features:

– WUXGA resolution

– 20,000:1 contrast ratio

– 12,000 lumens of brightness

– 20,000 hour-long lamp replacement cycle

  When the building expanded to include a new auditorium, they did not have any equipment with video capability, so decided to purchase a projector with that capability to have installed permanently. The new auditorium— named the CMA Theater—is currently the largest performance space at the museum, and will host around 1o0 concerts and corporate events over the course of the year. In collaboration with Special Event Services and based on the reliability of their other Panasonic products, the museum selected the PT-RZ12K laser projector with the ultra-short throw ET-D75LE30 lens, which enables greater installation flexibility for the projector.

The 3-Chip DLP™ projector is extremely compact but features 20,000 hour of maintenance-free projection at full power, thanks to Panasonic’s unique SOLID SHINE laser light source technology.

Notes Alex, “It only took 10 minutes to decide that this was what we wanted. The key features that we were looking for were image quality and reliability. The images are clear and crisp. And we didn’t trust the back­ground of other companies when looking at their warranties; we wanted a brand that was reputable and would last a long time.”

Ease of use was another major selling point for the team. When the pro­jector was installed in December 2015, it only took one day to get it up and running. Alex notes that the projector “powers up quickly and powers down quickly. It’s light and easy to maneuver if we need to move it. Additionally, the menu is not overly complicated. The PT-RZ12K is very simple to use.”

The projector is also virtually silent, a massive advantage for concerts where sound flexibility and sensitivity is of the utmost importance.

Alex adds, “we were very impressed with the laser technology: even though the product says it is 12,000 lumens, people think it’s brighter. We’ve had great experiences: Panasonic is consistently trouble free, maintenance free and ultra-reliable.”

“What’s more, one of the folks from Panasonic’s factory in Japan even came by to see how things were going and what we thought of the projector. The whole process was extremely quick and painless. It felt like everyone really cared.”